Vince Zampella, co-founder and CEO of video game developer Respawn Entertainment, will now head up the Los Angeles outpost of DICE, a game studio headquartered in Sweden that is best known for the Battlefield and Star Wars: Battlefront series.
The news was revealed in a Los Angeles Times feature published Thursday morning, in which Zampella discussed the new venture. The studio, which operates independently from Respawn and DICE Stockholm, will work on a new game that has yet to be revealed. All the studios are under the umbrella of publisher EA, which fully acquired DICE in 2006 and Respawn in 2017.
Zampella told the Times that the Los Angeles studio will “probably rebrand” and drop the DICE name. “We want to give it a new image. We want people to say, ‘This is a destination you can go and make new content,'” he said.
Zampella’s move is being overseen by Laura Miele, a longtime exec at EA who has served as the company’s chief studios officer since April 2018. “I think under Vince’s leadership the expectation is to have them work on and create a game on their own,” Miele said of the new studio.
Respawn confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Zampella will remain as head of the studio and that heading the DICE’s L.A. studio is an expansion of his roles at EA.
Respawn Entertainment is coming off a big year in 2019, where it launched the free-to-play Apex Legends in February and the Star Wars single-player title Jedi Fallen Order in November. Both games are among the year’s top earners. The company’s latest, VR shooter Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, is due out this year.
Jan. 2, 1:25 p.m. Updated with response from Respawn.
